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Greek austerity tragedy shows where not to make cuts

No money to treat brain tumours

(Image: Georgios Makkas/Panos)

AUSTERITY can be bad for you.

The Greek government made deep cuts to healthcare and social services between 2009 and 2012 as a result of the country’s financial crash. Suicides increased 45 per cent between 2007 and 2011 and, over roughly the same period, cases of depression more than doubled and infant mortality rose by 43 per cent.

Needle-exchange schemes and free condoms for injecting drug users were cut. By 2012, new HIV cases in this group were 32 times the 2009 level. Greece also had its first cases of locally spread malaria for 40 years (The Lancet, doi.org/f2p8qx).

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It’s a false economy to cut health spending, says David Stuckler of the University of Oxford, who led the analysis. Iceland and Finland survived economic meltdowns without doing so. Spain, on the other hand, cut health budgets a few years after Greece so could soon face similar problems.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Health cuts trigger Greek tragedy”